Difficult menu at 'lobster summit'

By Jonathan Beale
BBC News, Washington

Kennebunkport is giving Mr Putin a warm welcome

It has been dubbed the "lobster summit". Lobster is the seafood of choice at Kennebunkport, the small town on the Maine coast that is home to President Bush senior's summer retreat and is now the venue for talks between his son and Vladimir Putin.

But the menu of issues to be discussed by both leaders will prove more difficult to digest: missile defence; Kosovo; democratic reform; and how to deal with Iran - to name a few that are already causing heartburn.

Why Kennebunkport? Well, President Putin was on his way to Guatemala and the Russians suggested that it might be a good time to talk.

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President Bush responded positively and thought that his father's compound would be a congenial setting for informal discussions - in other words, away from the White House and the media spotlight.

Serious miscalculation?

US officials want to avoid another blast of Cold War rhetoric from President Putin. They want the two leaders to work out their differences in private.

For President Bush, it is another opportunity to look into President Putin's "soul".

At their first meeting in June 2001, Mr Bush famously said: "I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy... I was able to get a sense of his soul."

The compound is away from the White House spotlight

That now looks like a serious miscalculation. Does the US president now see more the darker side of this former KGB officer?

President Putin's recent rhetoric has alarmed Washington.

First, his oblique comparison of US foreign policy to the Third Reich, his criticisms of the war in Iraq and then his threat to point Russian missiles at Europe if America located missile defence bases in the Czech Republic and Poland.

In turn, Mr Bush criticised Moscow for rolling back on democracy.

Echoes of the Cold War certainly. But US officials say they want to avoid "a rush to the bottom".

Opportunity

The G8 summit in Germany saw an attempt by both leaders to draw back from the brink.

President Putin appeared to catch Mr Bush by surprise by offering the use of an ageing Russian radar base in Azerbaijan for America's missile defence shield.

The Russians clearly see that as an alternative to sites in eastern Europe - once part of the Soviet empire.

Mr Bush's father's presence may be a bonus

But President Bush is ignoring the gamesmanship and taking it as an opportunity to co-operate.

At Kennebunkport he will repeat his offer for US and Russian experts to sit down together to try to find a solution.

But do not expect any breakthroughs on missile defence - or for that matter any other issue.

US officials have been stressing that there is unlikely to be any "grand announcement". They say this is not about "deliverables".

It is as much an acknowledgement that the US is still working out how to deal with a more assertive Russia. But that diplomacy is the only way forward.

Perhaps the presence of George Bush Senior will help his son learn a few tricks on that front.